@Knighty_IX I recently wrote a sales speech for an English course about Jam with the Band, why it failed miserably in west and why Nintendo should try again with Switch so I'll be talking about that game since it's still fresh in my mind. Prepare for a long post (which I'm writing for the second time because I exited Chrome by an accident when I was almost done).

Now, Jam with the Band is the localized version of Nintendo's rhythm game Daigasso! Band Brothers DX which was released back in 2008. Daigasso! Band Brothers DX sold half a million copies in 1.5 years in Japan so Nintendo decided to bring it to west but in the end, it arrived in 2010 and only in Europe. It was dead on arrival. 3DS was already on the horizon and casual games had lost their momentum. Had they released the first Daigasso! in both America and Europe as a launch game like in Japan, this story might have been a lot different. There weren't many games at launch so another game from Nintendo would've definitely gained at least some attention. It deserves to be up there with Nintendo's other two DS rhythm games: Elite Beat Agents and Rhythm Heaven.

I came across Jam with the Band a year or two ago while searching for DS's "hidden gems". I like to think I have quite a good grasp of everything DS has to offer. I have over 70 games myself and I'm aware of most of the games that are above average. Yet, I had never heard of Jam with the Band. I took a quick look of its gameplay and instantly ordered it. It's really cheap since it didn't sell well.

I started playing and was greeted by Barbara the Bat. Most know her as the assist trophy character who plays guitar in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I was a bit surprised by the song selection. There are 50 songs. There's too much classical music to my taste but it also includes songs such as The Final Countdown, Material Girl and Smoke on the Water. But then there's also video game music from F-Zero, Zelda and Mario. Those are my favorites for obvious reasons.

There are 4 difficulties to choose from. Beginner has you using just one button while master utilizes 10. The game doesn't punish you like EBA which ends the song if you're not doing well enough but you will go and cry in the corner if you choose to play on master. Some songs are just impossible. In addition, each song has up to 8 different instruments you can choose from. You can even sing thanks to DS's microphone. Each song has so much to offer. Unfortunately, there are times you'll pick an instrument, let's say drums and you'll end up playing the same comping for the whole duration of the song. Or you pick an instrument which isn't used that much during the song you picked.

Where the game truly shines, is its multiplayer. You can form a band with 7 other DS owners and you only need one copy of the game thanks to download play. You can choose any song while playing this way, even one of the user created songs! Oh, I didn't tell you? You can create and share songs. You have bunch of different instruments at your disposal, including the NES soundchip. Once your song is ready, you can share it with the world. Nintendo also updated the game with additional songs you could download for free. 222 in total. More game songs as well from games like Star Fox, Animal Crossing, Metroid and Pikmin. There's just one problem. You can't access them or any user created songs anymore.

But that's what Daigasso! Band Brothers P is for, right? Unfortunately, they wen't back to Japan only and 3DS is region locked so I haven't had a chance to play it. You could even make your own vocaloid in that one. Here's a user created Splatoon song to demonstrate what you can do with this game Link.

I hope they continue the series on Switch. Now would be a perfect time to release the game when there aren't as many heavy hitters. I hope they'll localize the next game but at least Switch is region free so I'll be getting a new Daigasso! regardless if they do make a new one. It would also be much easier to gather friends around one console instead of each having to own one. I've only been able to play Jam with the Band with maximum of 3 people. It's fun when you're doing good, you start paying attention to the other instruments and you notice your friend is missing every note.

I programmed a simple tool that copies all Switch screenshots from an SD card and places them to folders according to the game:Link

@Joeynator3000 No way, where do monitors get all that processing power? I can't fathom all that power ...is the Flash real? Has he been sitting in front of me the whole time and he's actually my TV? Isn't this UNLIMITED POWER?

@Late Very nice post, thank you for your in-depth insight on such an obscure game. I also came across this while searching through Nintendo DS Hidden Gems lists, although I still haven't played it yet (guess I need to change that). To be honest, I initially wasn't impressed from what little I saw despite the hearing some positive impressions that it took me a couple of years to re-evaluate this game. The user creation feature sounds similar to Wario Ware D.I.Y's, although I enjoyed using KORG DS-10 Plus more whenever I'm mixing sounds. 222 songs... holy, this game is chockfull of content and having up to 8 players with a single cart sounds like an underappreciate feature that definitely makes this game stand out, it really seems unfortunate that this game didn't do so well. I'm not sure if I'll be playing Jam with the Band anytime soon, but I'm definitely going to give this game a chance.

i got kicked out of the chinese buffet again tuesday.
i jumped on the table and yelled "streets of rage 4 comin soon you [email protected]#$!"
and threw a bottle of hot mustard across the room that hit some lady.
who cares. in life you have to make an impact.
plus there wasnt any ton in my wonton soup.
all won and no ton.

the_shpydar wrote:
As @ogo79 said, the SNS-RZ-USA is a prime giveaway that it's not a legit retail cart.
And yes, he is (usually) always right, and he is (almost) the sexiest gamer out there (not counting me) ;)

i got kicked out of the chinese buffet again tuesday.
i jumped on the table and yelled "streets of rage 4 comin soon you [email protected]#$!"
and threw a bottle of hot mustard across the room that hit some lady.
who cares. in life you have to make an impact.
plus there wasnt any ton in my wonton soup.
all won and no ton.

Damn you. I spit out my beer laughing at this, as i could actually picture it in my mind.
But it's okay. I have a lot more beer.
(but no ton. damn those chinese restaurant folk, hoarding all the ton and dumping the inferior won on us.)

Damn you. I spit out my beer laughing at this, as i could actually picture it in my mind.
But it's okay. I have a lot more beer.
(but no ton. damn those chinese restaurant folk, hoarding all the ton and dumping the inferior won on us.)

thats the 5th time or so someone told me they spit out something they were drinking from reading something i wrote. last month another friend told me he almost spit out his beer. i am responsible for many ruined keyboards and i have no regrets.@Sir_Anthony haha

the_shpydar wrote:
As @ogo79 said, the SNS-RZ-USA is a prime giveaway that it's not a legit retail cart.
And yes, he is (usually) always right, and he is (almost) the sexiest gamer out there (not counting me) ;)

Well, that's my blog updated with impressions of PUBG after my stream yesterday playing it for the first time.

Boy is it a mixed experience. Conceptually fantastic, but that concept is realised only in the final few minutes, as you are likely to die upon landing, run around not finding anything until the area shrinks enough with around 20 players left, or run around, find nothing, and die from a blind shot.

Still...I'm glad my PC managed to run that, a Skype call, stream it to Twitch at 1080p60fps, run XSplit (And thus a view of the game on my other monitor), with minimal fuss.

I wont try with Ultra settings though...

Sign up for the NL Inklings Splatoon 2 Tournament on June 9th: https://bit.ly/2IoFIvj